7 replies to this topic

[Czerno Alpha]

This will be unpopular, but I'm going to throw it out anyway.

The Heavy Gauss currently deals 25 damage, pinpoint at a distance of around 400m. An assault mech with two of them can fire both simultaneously and significantly damage, if not outright kill, anything it can hit. Lights can get around this with their speed, but other assault mechs can be crippled in a single volley of 50+ damage instantly. This is not fun to play against.


The heavy Gauss is supposed to be a massive weapon with devastating power at close range. It was originally concieved for the tabletop game where your pilot's chance to hit with them was determined by a dice roll. Since we are dealing with player aim, rather than RNG to determine hits, we need to change how the gun works. MWO isn't canon anyway. To this end, I suggest the following changes be tested for balance and fairness in play.

Suggestions for improvement:

1. Limit the charging and firing of heavy gauss to 1 at a time. This will allow the target time to spread at least some of the damage. Mediums and lighter heavies will still feel the threat, but other assault mechs might have the time to not instantly lose a torso.

2. Significantly reduce their effective range, somewhat shorter than an AC/20. On this same idea, adding significant projectile drop would help mitigate the power of longer range shots. This is a slug weighing in at 200kg. That's not going to fly nearly as fast, or as straight as a slug weighing 100.

3. Last resort, reduce the damage to around 20 points. I think the other two options are better, but in the end, reducing the damage will help mitigate the power of the weapon and make it less difficult to absorb the incoming damage.

[SPNKRGrenth]

Okay, so what's the trade off for all these potential suggested nerfs? This is an 18 ton, 11 slot weapon, with 5 shots per ton. And you're comparing it to a 14 ton, 10 slot, 8 shot per ton weapon.

You nerf how many you can charge at a time, and each one will need to hit harder. Nerf the effective range, And it's going to need something like extra max range. Heavily nerf the damage, and it'll need both more shots per ton of ammo, and faster fire rate.

That said, a Heavy Gauss with 22 damage, 6 shots per ton, and something like 180m optimal range with 1000m max range, would be interesting.

[Y E O N N E]

The Heavy Gauss does 25 points of pinpoint damage at 220 meters; its max range is 900 meters. At 400 meters, it's doing a hair less than 18.4 damage.

Given your starting position was entirely flawed, I question the wisdom of the remainder. When this weapon came out, the optimum range was 180 meters and it was a meme. At 220 meters, it is exactly where it needs to be to be usable without being overly destructive or overly gimped by the many other drawbacks it has including:

- requiring a standard engine
- being extremely likely to get crit
- being extremely likely to explode when crit
- requiring a charge-up
- low ammo count per ton
- short optimum range

At current levels, the HGauss can trade with normal Gauss at 550 meters once skilled up but loses handily beyond that. 'Mechs running HGauss are easy to kite, easy to poke on, and easy to crit-gank with MGs.

[Cichol Balor]

show me on the doll where the Fafnir touched you

[admiralbenbow123]

Czerno Alpha, on 15 January 2019 - 09:24 PM, said:

This will be unpopular, but I'm going to throw it out anyway.

The Heavy Gauss currently deals 25 damage, pinpoint at a distance of around 400m. An assault mech with two of them can fire both simultaneously and significantly damage, if not outright kill, anything it can hit. Lights can get around this with their speed, but other assault mechs can be crippled in a single volley of 50+ damage instantly. This is not fun to play against.


The heavy Gauss is supposed to be a massive weapon with devastating power at close range. It was originally concieved for the tabletop game where your pilot's chance to hit with them was determined by a dice roll. Since we are dealing with player aim, rather than RNG to determine hits, we need to change how the gun works. MWO isn't canon anyway. To this end, I suggest the following changes be tested for balance and fairness in play.

Suggestions for improvement:

1. Limit the charging and firing of heavy gauss to 1 at a time. This will allow the target time to spread at least some of the damage. Mediums and lighter heavies will still feel the threat, but other assault mechs might have the time to not instantly lose a torso.

2. Significantly reduce their effective range, somewhat shorter than an AC/20. On this same idea, adding significant projectile drop would help mitigate the power of longer range shots. This is a slug weighing in at 200kg. That's not going to fly nearly as fast, or as straight as a slug weighing 100.

3. Last resort, reduce the damage to around 20 points. I think the other two options are better, but in the end, reducing the damage will help mitigate the power of the weapon and make it less difficult to absorb the incoming damage.

Made a guide specifically for people like you:
https://mwomercs.com...sweapons-guide/

[HammerMaster]

Stuff I've asked for since Beta.
NOW this.
A return to Bloom Reticule.
IF the firing mech is moving then the reticule will spread.
IF the firing mech is FIRING then the reticule will spread.
IF the fring mech is taking fire then the reticule will spread.
btw, isn't there already HGR screen shake?

Edited by HammerMaster, 16 January 2019 - 09:25 AM.

[Cichol Balor]

HammerMaster, on 16 January 2019 - 08:21 AM, said:

Stuff I've asked for since Beta.
NOW this.
A return to Bloom Reticule.
IF the firing mech is moving then the reticule will spread.
IF the firing mech is FIRING then the reticule will spread.
IF the fring mech is taking fire then the reticule will spread.
btw, isn't there already HGR screen shake?

we don't need any more rng. and why exactly would my 'mech filled with gyros and stabilizers have trouble aiming while moving? why would firing lasers make my aim worse? you already get shook when taking fire based on weapon impact something much better than rng spreading.


I mean really modern day weapon platforms are able to stay stable while shooting and moving you think the SL forgot how to do that when making these things?

Edited by Cichol Balor, 19 January 2019 - 06:47 AM.

[FearThePaladin]

First HG and Gause has already been heavily nerfed. The damage per second is extremely low especially on an assult. The alpha that you can get on a fafnir is 75. There are plenty of other mechs that do far more damage per second and higher alphas. I know a quad rotary ac 2 alpha rating is almost DOUBLE that of the dual HG.

The charge up time is what half a second, and a cooldown time of 5 seconds. That means that you can do 50 points every five and a half seconds. The PIR on the other hand, a light mech can do 12 points of damage a second or 66 points of damage in the time the Dual HG can rearm. This is of course assuming that the HG mech can fire as soon as the weapon is ready and has a target.

It also assumes that the HG mech pilot can shoot where he wants to aim. Hit the mech with an AC or missile and the vibrations cause the shot to go off somewhere.

Yes the dual HG is powerful and it does pinpoint damage but only relatively FEW pilots use them because of their backdraws. It requires A LOT of skill to use them effectively.

You want to nerf things... how about ATMs? LRMs? those require no skill what so ever, get a lock and squeeze off 12X2X3 points of damage to the enemy mech, skill it out and away you go.

Rotary ACs? ever get a face full of those? You cannot see anything and cannot fight back and as I said its rated 135. 6.5 a second X 4 X 5 seconds... 130 vs the Dual HG at 50.... So nerf those while you are at it.

Just saying there are plenty of more powerful weapons and mechs... than a dual HG... If anything they need to drop the cooldown time BACK to 4 seconds. Make the weapon really worth all the tonnage it has and low ammo capacity.